Photo challenge Part One

So I have been half arse doing this photo challenge. I was meant to be taking a photo of something every day of July but I didn't actually start it until about the 10th and most of these pics were taken on the same days so it's not quite the right idea... No matter it's still good to practice with ,y camera.

Flower In A Window

Ok so it's not really a flower but it's a plant. It's a succulent that I put into a tea cup because I thought it'd be cute and because I wanted some plants in my room that hardly need to be watered. These little things actually die if you water them regularly so they are perfect for my casual/forgetful approach to looking after things.

Free Shot

 I just really like this pic and it shows how cold it's been lately.

A Pet Outside

This is a bit of a cheat perhaps since sheep are always outside but they are also my only pets. Perhaps I should have brought one in to make it a contrast XD

An Item You Recently Acquired

I made a special trip to Typo while I was in Wellington as I always like their notebooks. This is one of the three that I bought.

Something Green

Me and Mum had a pretty serious day of work last week and we had two truck and trailer loads of green waste to take away.

Free Shot

 For some reason I have never noticed this house before but I really like the shape of it.

In The Sun

Winter sun at the beach.

A Statue Of A Dog Or A Horse

This is in Feilding and the dog has a man with him but I figured most statues of horses would have a human on their back anyway.

So theres my first 8 pictures. If you like the sound of this photo challenge head on over to the original post on my sisters blog.
http://tomorrowsheretoday.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/photo-day-challenge-july.html

Photography Fun

Today was unusual for me, a theme this weekend that I feel I've really needed. Today I went to my first bloggers brunch club and I was pretty nervous before I left but everyone made me feel really welcome. I was very impressed, the other girls seem so much more accomplished than me, working with suppliers and businesses while I'm just over here writing to myself. It was nice to hear their views though and to hear that blogging doesn't have to take over your life and small is nothing to be ashamed of. We all start just for the love of it and I don't need mine to pay the bills so I'm happy to let it roll along quietly. I got so wrapped up in listening and talking that I forgot to ask for their blog details and instagram names! Duh! Oh well I guess I will just have to go to the next brunch and ask then.

 After brunch club I decided to take the long way home as the sun was shining and I wanted to take photos. I had seen a road sign on the way down pointing to a town that I couldn't remember visiting so I decided to travel back via that way. As it turns out the town wasn't really a town at all but about 6 building around a round about which I guess is why I can't remember visiting it before.

Next stop was Marton where I found a cute park that I've never seen before. It didn't look it's best really but you can just tell that it would be beautiful in the spring and summer so I plan to go back when the leaves return.

There were loads of ducks on the pond but there was a trio that really caught my eye because they had funky hair do's like this guy! They started off on the pond as they were a bit nervous but once I crouched down to take photo's of other things they got a bit cheeky and came up on the bank to see if I had any bread hiding in my pockets. Unfortunately I didn't but I will try to remember to take some when I go back.

On my way out of town I saw this nice church and played about with the sun behind the cross. It didn't come out quite how I planned but I still like it.

I headed home and picked up Mum and convinced her to come out to Kai Iwi beach with me as neither of us had been out there since the floods. We knew the bridge was broken but it was still a bit of a shock to actually see it first hand. I of course had to test it out and walked over the broken bits to stand on the end.

There was a lot of rain last night so the rivers where all running dirty and have made the sea a strangely appealing muddy colour. You wouldn't catch me swimming in it but it was interesting to watch.
I'll leave you with one final photo of a shell that was on the beach. It caught my eye because of the strange worm like patterns on it.

Taranaki Touring. Part 1

I apologise if it seems like I wandered off for awhile because, well, I did...
The interesting thing about being a house sitter is that you never really know when the jobs will come in. Sometimes I seem to get multiple requests just when it's highly inconvenient  and other times the requests arrive just when I'm waiting a break and are really quite welcome. They can be a blessing or a burden depending on the circumstances. The last job I did was a real blessing, my cousin wanted me to look after her farm while her and her family went away. She lives in a rural area about 2 hours drive from where I live and about 1 hour away from New Plymouth which is a town that I was planning to explore with Dad.
The entire area around where she lives is very scenic so it was really a gift for me and Dad to be able to stay there and have not only free accommodation but get paid to stay. We did of course have to look after her animals which included a house dog (an elderly terrier), 3 chickens, 2 pigs, a cat and 8 farm dogs which may sound a lot but only took an hour or so to care for morning and night.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though. On the Thursday we traveled up in a very leisurely manner. We were taking the coast road so we stopped at all the beaches along the way and found things of interest at every one. At the first beach we stopped at there is a bit of a camp ground and some of the people who were staying there had apparently had a party on the beach the night before. They had set up a wind break and benches out of drift wood and had themselves a large bonfire. When we arrived the ashes were still warm so being the pyromaniacs that we are we wanted to see if we could get it going again. I found some beach tumble weeds ( I have no idea of the proper name, they are some sort of seed from the sea grasses I think and when its windy they roll along the beach like mini tumbleweeds. Turns out they make good tinder) and Dad got some small sticks which we stacked onto the warm ashes and then we wandered off along the beach. On our way back we saw someone else adding sticks to the fire before scuttling off down the beach so we reclaimed our space and built up the flames until we had some big logs on there. The people we had seen adding sticks then came back to join us and had a chat with us while they enjoyed the heat from our fire. It was all very impromptu but that always makes the best memories.
 

The next stop along the way was a beach which I knew sometimes had seals and I was really hoping there would be one there. I was in luck! I always forget how much they smell though, like some sort of mix between old wet dog and stinky fish and ocean. The one we saw was alone and somewhat nervous so although we got close enough to take pictures it wasn't too keen on us being around and headed down the cliff and out to sea not long after we had moved away.

 Up next was a beach that had a super cool old sea wall that we just had to walk along even if the tide was coming in and making it look a little dodgy. It was perfectly fine of course and we didn't even get splashed by the waves. There was also a ship wreck washed up on the beach that we had a mooch around and through. A few years ago when my sister visited we went to the same ship wreck and as she stood in front of it for me to take a photo a huge wave came over and splashed her! It was hilarious at the time and so we couldn't resist going over to it to take photos again but we did make sure the waves were breaking further out first.

The final beach on our tour had lots of rocks which made a great rock hopping course. Even at 71 Dad is still a keen rock hopper and he even made it to the ocean edge before me. Although I did get a little distracted looking in the rock pools for awhile. I didn't see much life except a few little quick darting fish but I did find a rubber end to a milking machine which will make a good dog toy.

Well that's pretty much it for our first day of traveling. From the last beach we headed straight on to my cousins farm, arriving about 5pm and the family at about 6pm after showing me around and telling what needed doing while they were away. We settled our selves in and since it had been a long day we turned in early to prepare for the next day of adventure.
Look out for part two which I'll be posting soon.

Sunshine, Sand and Seagulls

Urgh! Why is it every time I forget to take my camera/phone with me there is something amazing that I want to take photos of! Murphey's law or what.

Today me and Dad took Rush out to the beach for a walk because the weather was pretty good and also so that Dad could see what had changed.

We stopped at a shop on the way to get an ice cream each, candy floss flavour, which was actually pretty good but not as fake tasting as I had hoped.

It was a pretty perfect day for being out at the beach, the sun was shining, there was only a light breeze and there were hardly any people around. I love taking Rush to the beach because I can give him almost total freedom, I still call him in if we see another dog or if he is trying to eat something disgusting but mostly I just let him go where he wants as there is ocean on one side to pen him in and cliffs on the other.

Today as we wandered along with Dad I checked out the tide line. There had been a good influx of shells and I found a few pretty ones to bring home to add to my room as decoration. I don't often pick up shells as I have so many already but the ones I got today were large and unusual for our area and they will also serve as a souvenir to remind me of Dad's visit. 

Rush was having a great time finding old walnuts to eat that had washed up on the shore, splashing through the shallows and chasing the seagulls and other little shore birds. He never gets near them of course but he likes to try. I watched him take off after a particularly large seagull and suddenly realised that he was gaining on it, it splashed into the ocean and tried to swim away from him but of course he caught up to it easily. I thought the poor bird was a goner and perhaps it would have been better for it if Rush had munched it as it turned out to be on deaths door anyway.

Rush once he realised it wasn't going to keep moving wasn't quite sure what to do with his new friend. He gave the tail a few curious sniffs and then moved around to look it in the eye. SNAP! The gull had life in it yet and had made a grab for Rush's nose, luckily though it missed or the poor boy would have been whimpering. The were still out in the waves and Rush was getting out of his depth so I called him back in and we headed further off up the beach.

Once we reached the river which marks my turn around point I found a nice log out of the wind and me and Dad sat down for a little rest and a sun bathe. There were a whole lot of large logs damming the river and they made a bridge of sorts over the river to a little spit of sand on the other side. Of course in my mind all I could see was a challenge! Could I make it across the logs to the sand without falling in and getting wet? Answer.. After a little careful testing, Yes! So for the next bit of fun, could I entice Rush over too? Definitely, but mostly because there was a dead sheep jammed in the logs on the far side!

After I got him away from that we headed back down the beach and soon enough encountered the poor dying seagull again, Rush chased it into the water again and it went under a couple of times before I managed to get close enough to pick the thing up. It was all wet and bedraggled I got the impression it was quite an old bird that had just done it's time as there was no visible injuries on it. The fact that I had it in my hands made Rush all the more interested of course but he really is a lover not a biter and he was very careful when I lowered it down to show him. I can't say the same for the seagull though as it gave Rush a resounding peck on the nose! I wanted the old bird to be left alone to die if that's what it was going to do so I moved him up to the base of the cliff away from the waves and after a final sniff from Rush we left it be. I can't say that I hope it's dead now but I do hope that it isn't suffering, neither me nor Dad had the heart to put it out of it's misery and we may have taken the cowards option of leaving nature to take its course but you can't argue with nature.

After the beach we also stopped in at Bason reserve just to check out the scenery and I made sure I took my phone along this time so that I could get some pictures.